Dr. Haleh Esfandiari is currently the Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. From 1995-1996, she was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Dr. Esfandiari has taught Persian language at Oxford University. She also taught Persian language, contemporary Persian literature as well as courses on the women's movement in Iran while at Princeton University from 1980 to 1994. Prior to Princeton, she served as Deputy Secretary General of the Women's Organization of Iran. She was also the Deputy Director of a cultural foundation where she was responsible for the activities of several museums and art and cultural centers. She also worked as a journalist in Iran and taught at the College of Mass Communication in Tehran.

Dr. Esfandiari is the author of Reconstructed Lives: Women and Iran's Islamic Revolution (1997), editor of Iranian Women: Past, Present and Future (1977), the co-editor of TheEconomic Dimensions of Middle Eastern History (1990), and of the multi-volume memoirs of the famed Iranian scholar, Ghassem Ghani. Among her other writings are chapters in the books: In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Post-Revolutionary Iran (1992), Iran at the Crossroads (2001), Middle Eastern Women on the Move (2003) and Islam and Democracy in the Middle East (2003).

Her articles have appeared in essay collections in a number of books as well as in Foreign Policy, Journal of Democracy, Princeton Papers in Near Eastern Studies, New Republic, Wilson Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education and Middle East Review. Her Op-Ed pieces include “Held in My Homeland” (September 2007) and “Tehran's Self-Fulfilling Paranoia” (August 2009) in the Washington Post and "U.S. Hikers and Iran's Maze" (October 2010) in the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for blogs and websites such as the New York Review of Books Blog with “Iran’s Harshest Sentence for an Innocent Scholar” (October 2009), “Iran’s Women of War” (January 2010), “Iran’s Interrupted Lives” (September 2010), “Iran’s State of Fear” (March 2011), “In the Jaws of the Mullahs” (November 2011), and “Iran’s Man in the Middle” (June 2013), as well as “Why Iran Freed Roxana Saberi” (May 2009) in the Daily Beast, “Misreading Tehran: The Real Impact of the Elections” (June 2010) in Foreign Policy, “Iran: The State of Fear” (April 2011) in the New York Review of Books, “The End of Illusion” in the blog of the New Republic (October 2011), “Iran Curtails Female Education” in The Iran Primer blog (August 2012), “Breaking Taboos” in the Wilson Center’s Middle East Program’s Viewpoints series (November 2013), as well as pieces for the New York Times’ “Room for Debate” series (August 2013 and March 2014).

Dr. Esfandiari has also edited the proceedings of conferences sponsored by the Middle East Program which include: "Women in Central Asia: A Turn of the Century Assessment" (2001), "Symposium on Palestinian Refugees" (2001), “ Middle Eastern Women on the Move” (2001), "Intellectual Change and the New Generation of Iranian Intellectuals" (2001), "An Assessment of the Iranian Presidential Elections" (2002), “More Than Victims: The Role of Women in Conflict Prevention” (2002), “Winning the Peace: Women’s Role in Post-Conflict Iraq” (2003), “Post-Khatami Iran” (2004), “Women, Muslim Laws and Human Rights in Nigeria” (2004), “The ‘Strategic Partnership’ Between India and Iran” (2004), “Political Transition in Afghanistan: The State, Islam and Civil Society” (2004), “Building a New Iraq: Women’s Role in Reconstruction” (2004), “The Status of Women in the Middle East” (2005), "A Troubled Triangle: Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan" (2005), “Building a New Iraq: Ensuring Women’s Rights” (2005), "Iran After the June 2005 Presidential Election" (2005), “A View from the Region: Different Perspectives on Israel’s War with Lebanon’s Hizbullah” (2006), “Regional Strategies for Empowering Women” (2006), “Reformist Women Thinkers in the Islamic World” (2009), “Secularism in the Muslim Diaspora” (2009), “Vanguard: Women in the Iranian Election Campaign and Protest” (2009), “The Iranian Presidential Elections: What Do They Tell Us?” (2010), “Islamic Feminism and Beyond: The New Frontier” (2010), “Iran: Turmoil at Home, Assertiveness Abroad? (2011), “Is the Arab Awakening Marginalizing Women?” (2012), and “The Arab Awakening: Is Democracy a Mirage?” (2012).

Dr. Esfandiari is the first recipient of a yearly award established in her name, the Haleh Esfandiari Award. This award was presented to Dr. Esfandiari by a group of businesswomen and activists from countries across the Middle East and North Africa region on the occasion of a conference sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center, “Women Entrepreneurs: Business and Legal Reform in the MENA Region,” held in Amman, Jordan in May 2008. Her other awards include: a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant (1997); the Special American Red Cross Award (2008); the Women's Equality Award from the National Council of Women's Organizations (2008); and Miss Hall’s School Woman of Distinction Award (2009). In December 2008, she became one of three first annual recipients of the Project on Middle East Democracy’s “Leader for Democracy” award.

Dr. Esfandiari received her Ph.D. from the University of Vienna and holds an honorary degree from Georgetown University Law Center (2008). She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Esfandiari serves on the Board of the Peace Research Endowment and on the board of advisors for the Project on Middle East Democracy. She was featured in Parade magazine (May 2008), in O, the Oprah Winfrey magazine (November 2008), and in Vogue magazine (August 2009).

Her memoir, My Prison, My Home, based on Esfandiari’s arrest by the Iranian security authorities in 2007, after which she spent 105 days in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin Prison, was published in September 2009 by Ecco Press, an imprint of Harper Collins. The paperback edition was released in October 2010.

"The only thing that’s certain now is that if the Western world and Persian Gulf states do not help Tunisia tackle its unemployment and the sociological malaise of the younger generation, things there will grow worse before there is any hope of improvement," writes Haleh Esfandiari and Jason Brodsky. more

"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s unrelenting condemnation of the nuclear agreement being negotiated with Iran was received with ovations in Congress and by audiences at AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby. In Iran, however, the response has been more varied and more nuanced," writes Haleh Esfandiari. more

"For Iran’s leaders, the technical details are the issue. They appear to be preparing the Iranian people for the possibility that no agreement will be reached and, if so, that failure will be blamed on the intransigence of America and its negotiating partners, rather than any shortcoming on Iran’s part," write Haleh Esfandiari and Robert Litwak. more

"The supreme leader said that any deal that does not respect Iran’s rights would be a bad deal, and he reiterated his condition that if there is to be an agreement, all sanctions must be lifted 'in the real meaning of the word,'" writes Haleh Esfandiari. more

"It is striking that while the supreme leader has, in a manner, continued to support the Iranian negotiating team, he has also permitted this barrage of criticism of the president, his foreign minister and Iran’s negotiators at a sensitive juncture in the nuclear negotiations," writes Haleh Esfandiari. more

2014 was not a good one for women in the Middle East. Political turmoil, civil war, the rise of Islamic State, clampdowns by autocratic governments, and the ineffectiveness of reformist governments all contributed to unfavorable, even worsening, conditions for women, writes Haleh Esfandiari. more

"President Barack Obama‘s announcement last week that the United States and Cuba would restore diplomatic relations has spurred some to suggest that relations should be restored with Iran after a 35-year rupture...For a number of reasons, Iran is not next in line, even if there is a positive outcome to the negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program." writes Haleh Esfandiari. more

The Iranian judiciary has extended its detention of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian by as much as two months. Haleh Esfandiari gives three possible reasons for the continued imprisonment of an innocent journalist.

"Western negotiators and Iran had more than a year to reach a comprehensive deal. Despite repeated assertions that Nov. 24 was a firm deadline, it seems that neither side took the date seriously," write Haleh Esfandiari and Robert S. Litwak.

"Parliamentarians’ renewed obsession with women’s dress and male-female workplace mixing represents a throwback to the early days of the Islamic revolution, when women who did not observe the Islamic dress code were subject to 70 lashes and when men and women were segregated in university classrooms, buses and elsewhere," writes Haleh Esfandiari.

"Islamic State militants crossed a last possible boundary of decency by citing the Quran as authority for the barbarism they have been practicing against women. Equally disturbing, Arab leaders and the ulama, the clerical leaders of Islam, have been silent in the face of this effrontery," writes Haleh Esfandiari.

"You should focus on 50% of the population, which is women, and see what is happening to them. You should mention them, you should have the courage to say 'yes this is done to our women; this is done to our sisters, daughters, wives...'" said Haleh Esfandiari.

"These mixed messages suggest that the Iranian leadership is either split over relations with the United States and the handling of the ISIS crisis in Syria and Iraq, or that it hasn't decided exactly which positions to adopt at a time of rapid and unpredictable change," writes Haleh Esfandiari.

"This carnage should be an opportunity for Washington to work with responsible actors in the region. Arab League and Gulf Cooperation Council countries should take the lead and provide humanitarian and military aid in the form of air power and ground troops to defeat and uproot ISIS, as it is already a coming attraction for Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia," writes Haleh Esfandiari.

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A panel of experts shared their views on the current status of religious minorities in Middle East, especially in light of developments after the “Arab Spring,” and provided strategies and recommendations for how these minorities can be protected.

Of 20 Arab and Muslim states, 14 have unfavorable opinions of Iran. This fact and more was uncovered in James Zogby’s recent poll of Arab and Muslim opinion on Iran. James Zogby was joined by panelists Haleh Esfandiari, Hisham Melhem, Barbara Slavin, and Marc Lynch in this National Conversation discussion moderated by Tom Gjelten of NPR.

While there is much talk of an “Arab” view of Iran, there are in fact significantly divergent views on Tehran’s role, even among rulers in the region. Shibley Telhami will present his analysis and paper on this subject at the United States Institute of Peace.

Khosrow Semnani will present the findings of his new report, “The Ayatollah’s Nuclear Gamble,” which offers a detailed, scientific discussion of the human and environmental consequences of a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. The report and the discussion will highlight a largely overlooked issue in the intensifying public debate in the United States over the wisdom of using military force to try to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Six leading Iran experts discussed the country’s domestic and international developments since the contested 2009 presidential elections, looking at how the Iranian regime has managed its internal political, economic, and social affairs as well as its foreign policy.

Women throughout the world are working towards viable democracies but not without challenges. NPR Journalist Jacki Lynden and Secretary General of the Jordanian National Commission for Women Asma Khader joined other women leaders from the Arab and Islamic regions to address these challenges and examine the influences of the Arab Spring on women.

Marwan Muasher, Ellen Laipson, Rami Khouri and Aaron David Miller discussed perspectives and policy implications of this year’s unrest in the Middle East, pointing out key observations and implications for the United States.

The last week in Egypt was yet another breathtaking moment in the history of the Arab Spring. For the second time in two years, the Egyptian people have emerged victorious in a major confrontation with their government. Yet the road ahead is bumpy. Events in Egypt suggest that the Islamist ascendancy of the last few years has peaked and is now in decline. Yet the jury is still out on that question, and developments in Egypt will do much to answer it.

The essays in this report reflect an effort to provide background and context for understanding Iran's relations with Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela; the articles emphasize the foreign policy objectives and strategies of Latin American nations as well as the strategic objectives of the Iranian government. Originally presented at a conference at the Woodrow Wilson Center in July 2008, the papers have since been revised, translated, and updated.

The 1979 Islamic Revolution transformed all areas of Iranian life. The state set out to restrict women’s hard-won legal and social rights and to dictate aspects of their lives, including their dress, education opportunities, and relations with men. In Reconstructed Lives, Iranian women tell in their own words what the revolution attempted and how they responded.

Haleh Esfandiari &#8211; Director of the Middle-East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center and Larry Diamond &#8211; a Senor Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Professor of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford University

Haleh Esfandiari,
Consulting Director for the Middle East Project at the Wilson Center;
Nayereh Tohidi,
Associate Professor in the Dept. of Women's Studies at California State University;
Lilia Labidi,
Professor of Anthropology and Psychology at University of Tunis